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Philosophicarum et astronomicarum institutionum. Basel: Henricus Petrus, August 1531.
Details
WILLIAM OF CONCHES (c.1080-c.1160)
Philosophicarum et astronomicarum institutionum. Basel: Henricus Petrus, August 1531.
First edition of any part of the De philosophia mundi by William of Conches, a 12th-century natural philosopher who concentrated on empirical science, combining the Christian and Islamic traditions. Through his deep reading of the classics and writing commentaries on works of Macrobius, Martianus Capella, Boethius, and the Timaeus of Plato, he came to be an important conduit for the transmission of scientific, especially cosmological, knowledge of Antiquity; he also had extensive knowledge of current scientific and philosophical theories of his day, including those derived from works of Arabic science newly translated into Latin.
William discusses the four elements of fire, earth, wind and water, following Constantine the African, the zodiac, celestial movements, lunar eclipses, comets, and the human body, including conception and regions of the brain, here intriguingly mapped in a simple diagram by a contemporary reader. The work’s modern editor, Prof. P.E. Dutton, has noted that the title of the 1531 first edition emphasises the astronomical and philosophical aspects over the wider treatment of all four elements. VD-16 G-4078.
Quarto (185 x 138mm). Historiated woodcut initials (first two leaves lightly spotted, faint dampstain). Modern red morocco. Provenance: a few contemporary annotations, including a diagram interpreting graphically a description of the brain.
Philosophicarum et astronomicarum institutionum. Basel: Henricus Petrus, August 1531.
First edition of any part of the De philosophia mundi by William of Conches, a 12th-century natural philosopher who concentrated on empirical science, combining the Christian and Islamic traditions. Through his deep reading of the classics and writing commentaries on works of Macrobius, Martianus Capella, Boethius, and the Timaeus of Plato, he came to be an important conduit for the transmission of scientific, especially cosmological, knowledge of Antiquity; he also had extensive knowledge of current scientific and philosophical theories of his day, including those derived from works of Arabic science newly translated into Latin.
William discusses the four elements of fire, earth, wind and water, following Constantine the African, the zodiac, celestial movements, lunar eclipses, comets, and the human body, including conception and regions of the brain, here intriguingly mapped in a simple diagram by a contemporary reader. The work’s modern editor, Prof. P.E. Dutton, has noted that the title of the 1531 first edition emphasises the astronomical and philosophical aspects over the wider treatment of all four elements. VD-16 G-4078.
Quarto (185 x 138mm). Historiated woodcut initials (first two leaves lightly spotted, faint dampstain). Modern red morocco. Provenance: a few contemporary annotations, including a diagram interpreting graphically a description of the brain.
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